Politics

Pardon…Or No Pardon?

Toussie pleaded guilty to charges in two separate cases. In one, he admitted in 2001 that he had made false statements to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, pleading guilty to a count of falsifying loan documents that illegally qualified about 100 home buyers for the HUD-backed mortgages.

He and his father, Robert Toussie, were also at the center of an investigation into whether Suffolk County drastically overpaid for a land purchase, sparking lawsuits and an overhaul of the county’s land acquisition program.

Isaac Toussie pleaded guilty in that case, which involved the county’s purchase of the Chandler estate in Mount Sinai for $5 million in 2000. He admitted he had a friend send the county a letter that falsely inflated the property’s value.

In 2003, Toussie was sentenced to 5 months in prison and 5 months of home detention and fined $10,000.

But I have to wonder…why the pardon in the first place? It couldn’t have anything to do with that $28,500 he donated to the Republican National Committee this year, would it?